Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Headlight Language

Late one night I noticed a police car following me. As I pulled into my driveway the officer parked, came over, and told me he just wanted to let me know one of my headlights was out. I was grateful and got it replaced the next day.

Now that the Winter weather is here and daylight savings time is over people need to use their headlights a lot, and I often see vehicles with one of them out. That can be a safety hazard, especially if the other one also burns out, but most of the drivers probably aren't aware of the problem.

I wish there were some way to let people know one of their lights is out.

Blinking one's own lights doesn't do much but get other people's attention for a few seconds. They wouldn't know why someone was doing that and it might irritate them.

In American Sign Language spreading the fingers and thumb on one hand wide apart and then pulling them together at the tips would signify that a light is out, but most people don't know ASL. Even if they did, they probably wouldn't be looking in the window of another car while driving in dark, possibly stormy conditions.

The best solution would be for everyone to check their lights regularly. Maybe if enough of us spread the word on the internet more drivers will do that. Please feel free to share this post or write your own on the subject. You'll never know how many lives you may save by doing that.


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